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Hounslow Conservatives Announce Manifesto Pledges on Housing

Hounslow Conservatives promise that once elected to run the Council they will deliver a democratisation of home building across the Borough. Thousands of new homes will be built by private developers, self-builders and the Council that will address the unmet demand for decent accommodation of all kinds.

Hounslow suffers from chronic under investment in housing of all kinds. The Labour Council’s inadequate and ideologically driven response to West London’s massive increase in population has left many homeless or inappropriately housed.

Labour-run Hounslow Council has this week been exposed this week* as being the sixth worst-run Council for sitting on unused housing budget funds. The Council currently has £16.9 million available for housing development that it has failed to spend. In addition, the Mayor of London has criticised the Borough for the not insisting on a much higher proportion of affordable housing when giving consent to private developers’ schemes.

Under labour, the Borough has also suffered from some of the worst abuses in the UK of Homes of Multiple Occupancy where multiple families share single properties that are unfit for human habitation. Conservatives will dismantle the centrist approach to house building that has so utterly failed to deliver results and replace it with a policy of open build policy that positively encourages housebuilding through the private and charity sectors.

Specific pledges include:

Strategic review of housing requirements. The Conservatives will institute a strategic review of the Borough housing needs for the next decade and create a comprehensive plan for the delivery of appropriate social housing across Hounslow.

Open build policy to encourage more house building. Conservatives will work with self-builders, small builders and the Charity sector throughout the Borough to encourage responsible new building.

Renovation of existing properties. Conservatives will make funds available through loans and grants for the renovation of older properties that the owners agree to make available to social tenants.

Lampton 360. Conservatives will devise an exit strategy for Lampton 360, Hounslow’s “ideological white elephant” housing organisation. Just seven houses have been purchased in four years against a target of 196. No new homes have been built. The closure of Lampton 360 should return millions to Hounslow’s coffers – although the exact amount is not clear because the full accounts of Lampton 360 are not available for public scrutiny.

“Housing has been used as a political football by Labour but they have failed to score a goal and have in the process cost the tax payers millions,” explains Sam Hearn, Conservative Group Leader on Hounslow Council. “Meanwhile residents have suffered through a lack of adequate housing. We need an end to the incompetence of Labour and the application of professional approach to the provision of new housing.”